Together Forever
by BlackCat46
Summary: How boring can one Saturday be? That's when Jerome walks in on someone close to him crying. He decides he wants to help. How will it go down? (R&R, AU,OOC.)


*Trudy.*

OK, this is so boring. I'm sat here, Saturday night. All the kids are out. Victor's out. I'm still here, in Anubis house. I'm bored senseless. I need to have a little bit of fun. Though I haven't got any friends. Sure I did, once or twice.

While I was in high school, I had seven very close friends, almost sisters that I really never had.

Here, I had Jasper two terms ago. But he just didn't want to know, so he left, too.

Yes, OK, I loved him. I admit it, I did. I do. But I see that this is hopeless. He and I are never going to see each other again.

*Jasper.*

Saturday night, guess where I am?

A conference hall, in Egypt, listening to some stupid excavation thing. Guess where I _want_ to be.

With Trudy Rehman, hiding out in Anubis house with her, listening to her sweet chatter. This is my waste of a Saturday.

Why did I ever leave her? Sure we weren't actually dating, but that didn't stop me from really wanting her. She's different. Unique. She was never the loud and irritating type, she was never the skinny glasses-&-braces-&-math kind.

She was... Trudy.

Always calm, quiet, hard-working, gentle, willing and helpful. She was herself, never trying to please everyone. She just wanted to help. If someone else was sad, she'd be there and offer them a shoulder to cry on.

As long as she could help, she would. She often wanted to risk her own safety to save someone else's. I love her.

*Trudy.*

If only he knew what I'm doing. I'm just dreaming about all the opportunities we had to kiss, all the opportunities we had to build a life with each other. All those wonderful opportunities, we missed them. And now he's off doing something fun, I'm here dreaming. I only want him back.

*Jerome.*

I came into Anubis house and heard soft sobs. I walked quietly into the living room and saw Trudy sat on the sofa. She was crying. It was always scary if Trudy cried. It made me think of the times I'd seen Victor hit her.

*_I was playing a game with Trudy in the hall. She was laughing, smiling as she played. Her soft black curls swung down her back. She was so pretty as she pushed the toy trains about._

_Then Victor yelled "Trudy, get up here, now!"_

_She gasped. "I'll be back to play again in a few minutes, my precious." She gave me a kiss on top of my head, then scampered like a hamster up the stairs._

_I heard Victor shouting at her in very not repeatable words. She was crying and insisting it wasn't true._

_Then he screamed "Don't you lie to me!" _

_I was upstairs in minutes. I saw him give her such a slap that she fell into the floor and hurt herself. She got very badly hurt. I remember running to my room and crying for her. Then I pretended playing when she came back down, though she could see I'd been crying._

_I saw the red on the rims of her pretty dark eyes, one eye with a purple shadow all the way around. Her soft cheek was scarlet and she had bruises up and down her arms, her lips swollen and her nose purple._

_She looked very hurt, all her hair tangled and messy, not in it's usual sweeping curtain._

_I gave her a gentle cuddle, wanting to make sure she was OK. She gasped in pain a little. I saw her neck was bruised and through the lace in the back of her shirt, I saw bruises._*

I went over to her now and put my arms around her. She didn't gasp in agony, she just sobbed.

"Sweetie, what are you doing home? I thought you and Mara would be out late?" She sobbed.

"Mara met up with her sister and she's gone to visit her family. Has somebody hurt you?" I asked her concernedly.

"No, sweetheart. I was just dreaming. You know me." She forced herself to sound brave.

"Trudy, I've known you for nearly fourteen years. I need you to tell me." I told her. "I want to help you like you help me."

"Aw, sweetie. Lovely, this is just me being the daft person I really am. There's no way you can help, I'm sorry." She gave me a quick hug.

"Trudy, let me set you straight here. First of all, you aren't daft. Second: If it makes you cry, I'll find a way to fix it. And third: I thought all the time that you'd never be able to solve my problem, but you did. I'll help you, Trudy, if you could just tell me why you were crying."

I looked her in the eyes. She saw the firm resolution in his my eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you. It's just... you know that you kids are like my own. I love you to shreds."

"Trudy, we all love you like our mother." I kept eye contact.

"Well. It's just that I miss having Jasper about. You know that... sorry, sweetie, you don't-"

"Yeah, I do. Spill it." I told her gently but very firmly, a trick I'd learnt from her.

"You know what the atmosphere was like if we were in the same room, don't you?" Trudy asked, looking like she hoped I understood.

"Yeah, I know." I told my housemother, my eyes on her soft brown ones.

"So you should have known that the minute we met, we felt this... connection to each other, if you will."

"I get it, Trudy. But how does this make you sad? If he loved you, he would come back for you." I told her, my brain putting together a plan.

"I know, that's just it. He doesn't love me. I could tell when that bell was stolen and I firmly believed it was Vera. I was right, of course. But that made him hate me more than he already did. It wasn't me he wanted, it was Vera, which is why he didn't want to believe it was her."

I felt her pain. "Trudy, he loved you. Anyone with eyes could see that. Just by the way he looked at you, anyone saw that he loved you. It's the way Alfie looks at Amber. The way Fabian looks at Nina, the way Eddie looks at Patricia. He will come back for you. As soon as he sees you again, he'll be by your side."

"Thank you, sweetie. I'm glad that you have a more positive view of the world than I do. And one day, very soon, all you lovelies won't be here and keeping me running about after you. You'll be all grown up, you won't need me."

I saw the tears in her eyes again. I knew I'd need her forever. She was the only one who had shown me any real love in the last thirteen, almost fourteen years.

"Trudy, no matter where I go, I will always need you." I told her, feeling the tears in my own eyes. Watching Trudy cry made me want to cry.

(Two months later.)

*Jasper.*

I miss Trudy so much. By now, the little angel's probably got herself married off and she'll be having a baby of her own. She's wonderful and I was stupid to leave her.

*Trudy.*

I miss Jasper. I think right now, he's married and with his wife and their children. Why was I stupid enough to not tell him that I love him when I had the chance? This could have been a whole different life for us.

*Jerome.*

I watched Trudy every single day. It hurt to watch her look so happy, when the whole time, I knew she was hurting. Eventually I asked Fabian if he would message his godfather and have him here soon.

*Fabian.*

Did I just hear right? Why would Jerome want Jasper here? He often referred to him as creepy and a complete kiss-up to everyone and a flirt when it came to Trudy. What the heck would he want to talk to him in person for?

"Why do you want Jasper, Jerome?" I asked him suspiciously.

"This is not for me, this is for... someone else. Someone who needs him desperately." Jerome told me. His eyes were hectic and full of concern.

If Jerome's so concerned for this poor person, I might as well find out who.

"Who is it who needs him that much, Jerome? Will they hurt him? I won't tell him that you need him if you won't tell me who needs him."

"It's a woman, no, she won't hurt him. She just really wants to see him." Jerome wouldn't get what he needed unless he told me who she was.

"What's her name, Jerome?"

"This is secret, you can't tell anyone, not even Jasper himself. It's Trudy. She told me in confidence. You aren't supposed to know and I am not supposed to be getting him to come back, but it's hurting me to see her so upset all the time, like she's happy but inside her heart's breaking."

Wow, this boy is good at talking quick and quiet.

"Oh, I get it, yeah. OK. If it's for Trudy, then yeah. But we aren't allowed to say it's for her unless it gets really desperate?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's the plan." Jerome told me.

I turned on Skype, then called him. He picked up fairly quickly.

"Fabian!"

"Jasper! Hey, how are you?"

"I am bored out of my skin. They're excavating yet another tomb. How is your life?"

"Oh, you know, homework and schooling mainly." I answered evasively, though he didn't notice that.

"How are your housemates? All of them behaving?" He asked me.

"Yeah, no trouble at all. Nobody's even had to be told off once."

"Wow, Victor and Miss Trudy must be proud of you all." He said happily, slightly more dream-like on Trudy's name. Only slightly, it was barely there.

"Yeah, I reckon so."

"How is Miss Trudy? Is she still the same as usual, bouncy and bubbly?"

"Yeah, but now I'm thinking that it's all a bit of a facade." I decided to scrap subtlety.

"Why's that? Has she been less herself recently?" Now he sounded concerned.

"I'm not sure, but Jerome knows."

"Jerome?" Jasper sounded suspicious and confused.

"Yeah."

"Right, put him on, would you, kid?" I let Jerome take my space.

*Jerome.*

"Tell me what's the matter with her, Jerome." Jasper was really concerned.

"She seemed fine up until yesterday. I found her crying. She told me that she wanted to see you again." I felt really bad betraying Trudy's confidences. She wouldn't trust me again.

"Oh, did she? OK, then. Well, seeing her would be better than listening to this stupid excavation thing. Yeah, I'll come round."

Minutes later, he came back on.

"Right, tickets booked, I'll be there in 48 hours. Are you going to tell her?"

"An hour before you arrive." The three laughed.

*Trudy.*

I couldn't believe my own ears. Were they serious? Tell me an hour before Jasper arrived? And so much for keeping my secrets, Jerome. Well, there goes trust. I don't want him to know any more secrets.

Well, I have news for them. I'm not going to let on that I know. I just won't. And there's no way I'm going to let Jasper see me in such a state. I'll dress up, make myself over. See what he thinks of me looking like an angel.

Or my hideous approximation of one.

(Two days later.)

Jerome and Fabian were acting very shifty and I heard them talking to Jasper on the phone. So I dressed up after making enough food. Then while I set up the food, Jasper knocked. He found me all dressed up in a very pale pink dress, my hair all piled up in a nice style and my face all made up.

"I thought you said you weren't telling her?" He said to the boys.

"We weren't. Apparently, she has something special on today?" Fabian said.

I said "No, no, sweeties, no. I knew that Jasper was coming. Looking at the food, I would think it was obvious."

Jasper looked at me. "What did you do to yourself, Trudy? You don't look like you."

I smiled, then everyone in the room looked blown away.

"That was the point. I thought you'd like the new look." I told them.

"Well, of course we like it." The two younger men said.

Jasper however looked slightly disappointed. "It's very nice, Trudy." I knew then that he didn't really like it.

(Later that night.)

I was sat having supper alone. Jasper hadn't eaten anything, he'd just watched me. I hadn't eaten either, I just sat on the sofa.

"Miss Rehman?" It was Jasper. Luckily, I hadn't started eating.

"Sir?" I tried politeness.

"Are you truly alone?"

"Yes, I am. Would you like to have something to eat with me?" I offered, trying my best to be polite.

"If it wouldn't trouble you, then I'd be delighted to, Miss Trudy."

I went and got him a plate of food and a glass of wine. I was still dressed in my posh clothes, thankfully.

We ate happily, then Jasper smiled at me. I had a candlestick on, lit up, roses on the table. It was a really romantic scene.

"You look so lovely, Miss Trudy."

"I can say the same for you."

We chatted a little while longer, but I truly thought he didn't like it as much as he used to like me.

He seemed like he wanted me to be what I wanted to be, not trying to impress him.

"So, what made you want to change?" He asked me suddenly.

"I don't know. I just thought that you'd like to see a more classy side of me, rather than rushing about sloppy motherly woman." I told him.

Then he said something that made me glow.

"I like seeing that you. It's who you are. So maybe not sloppy. But a rushed and motherly woman, definitely. And that makes you adorable."

After that, I felt very proud of what he'd said. I felt so happy that he appreciated who I really am.

"You're smiling." He commented, like he enjoyed the sight.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I tried to smooth my face out, and not show emotion.

"No, no, I like it. You look so beautiful. You have the most lovely smile, Trudy. I can imagine what your children would look like. You'd have the most adorable children. Do you ever consider children?"

Did he just ask me that?!

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**OK, does anybody think that this is up to scratch? It's probably rubbish, but I'd appreciate it if you'd review and tell me what you think. Until next update, Random Dizzy. :)**


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